


Miss You More than the Stars in the Sky

by ArdenSkyeHolmes221



Series: irondad bingo [1]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Female Peter Parker, Gen, Genderswap, Irondad Bingo 2019, Mild Language, Open Ending, Penny Parker - Freeform, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Whump, ambiguous ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 05:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArdenSkyeHolmes221/pseuds/ArdenSkyeHolmes221
Summary: Her breath catches in her throat.Another creature attacks from her left and Penny returns to the fray.It does little to calm her shaking because her mind rebounds between waking up and fighting. Her hands tremble as she fumbles throwing out webs and her accuracy suffers.***Penny Parker wakes up on Titan, five years later and all alone, and told she needs to fight Thanos again. Only... where’s Mister Stark?





	Miss You More than the Stars in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my first square for irondad bingo!!!! today it's genderbent and while it ISN'T the original story I thought it was going to be, it may seem familiar to some of my [tumblr](https://ardenskyedarcy221b.tumblr.com/post/187310994044/78) followers.

One second she is not there and the next she is struggling to breathe. _It fucking hurts, _she grits her teeth at the sensation of being stitched back together molecule by molecule by molecule. Due to the pain, it takes her much longer than she thinks it should to piece together her surroundings; her senses are dialed passed eleven and overwhelming, surpassing the memories of her spider mutation transformation.

“Hey, spider-kid, get up.”

At the command, her hands press against her ears. Decibels are encompassing and frankly causing her stomach to churn.

Someone touches her shoulder.

Bile rushes up her throat and Penny twists around and throws up.

“Gross!”

“Thanks for missing my shoes there, spider-kid.”

“Is she alright?”

“Give her room to breathe, you imbeciles.”

_Too much, _she whimpers, _where is he?_

“M’ster Stark?”

Something firm swishes against her hand and Penny gasps. She squints until she sees the reddish hue of the wizard’s cloak.

“It’s been five years,” comes a softly spoken baritone near her ear, but it’s deeper than the voice she was hoping would offer comfort. “They need us. Can you stand, Penny?”

_Can she stand?_

What does the wizard mean, five years? Five years since _what?_

“Since Thanos’s snap.”

Penny blinks up, realizing now she must have spoken aloud. “Where’s Mister Stark?” she presses again, slowly putting weight on her elbows until she is more elevated than reclined. “Where did he go? He was _right here! Mister Stark! I don’t understand! Mister Stark!”_

“We’re going to him but I need you to stand up, Spider-Woman.”

Harsh tone pulls Penny from her spiraling hysteria enough to blink up at the wizard. _Doctor Strange, _she internally corrects. His beryl eyes demanding all her focus and Penny has no choice but to listen. _Focus on him; listen to him; he knows where Mister Stark is at; he’ll help…hopefully._

“What— what’s going on?” she inquires, clenching her fists to stay in the moment.

“You’ve been in the soul stone with half universe since Thanos’s snap. It’s been five years. There’s a battle and the Avengers need our help.” Doctor Strange explains, his motions harried but his tone softened, patience seeping out as her speaks to her.

_Weird, _she thinks.

“Let’s go kick some ass!” Quill whoops as the remaining Guardians echo his cheer. He taps his helmet and it eclipses his face.

Slowly, Penny stands, waving off Doctor Strange’s proffered hand.

She wobbles.

“Ready?” the doctor asks under his breath.

She nods.

Without another word, Doctor Strange’s hands swirl and shift until familiar orange spits from his fingertips and he keeps up the motions until a hole opens up. A portal. Penny had been expecting to see his shields oddly enough, despite his reassurances they were going to help the Avengers fight Thanos again.

Her body quivers, adrenaline or anxiety pumping through her system, and Penny jumps in place, psyching herself up. Everyone else jumps through Doctor Strange’s portal and after a few more jumps does Penny web herself through it, landing on the other side.

Smoke makes her nose scrunch and Karen filters out the smells, fully back online and greeting her.

“Hello, Penny.”

_A familiar voice, _she praises, shoulders wanting to droop but Penny stands tall. “Hiya, Karen. Can you do me a favor?”

“Certainly.”

“Find Mister Stark?”

Yet Captain America calls for everyone to assemble and things become chaotic, to say the least. And suddenly Penny’s fighting for her life.

She dodges and Karen provides pointers.

Duck, hit, jump, roll, jump, hit, web. Rinse and repeat.

She needs to find her mentor, figure out what the fuck is going on, and see how she can help. She isn’t used to large scale fights without directions. Maybe her anxiety will calm when she finds Mister Stark.

Penny sweeps her legs out and takes down another enemy. Looks around, searching for a familiar red and gold armor among the wreckage and smoke and mass of bodies, both moving and still.

Her breath catches in her throat.

Another creature attacks from her left and Penny returns to the fray.

It does little to calm her shaking because her mind rebounds between waking up and fighting. Her hands tremble as she fumbles throwing out webs and her accuracy suffers. Creature hits her stomach. She hasn’t been this scared in a long time. Or ever, really, she realizes as she recovers and then dodges enemy fire from above and jumps over another fumbling form like a gymnast, twisting in the air, until she lands before the antenna lady from Titan. Mantis, she thinks. _Is that even a real name_, she wonders. Penny shakes away her erratic thoughts and focuses on the battle.

Right, second battle in the same day for her. Doctor Strange’s _it’s been five years_ speech doesn’t sit right with her, even if she happened to wake up without Mister Stark. As much as she does not like the idea of half a decade passing without her, she knows that her mentor wouldn’t just leave Penny behind. _Stop,_ she chides. She can freak out later. She’s gotta stay sh—

“Gah!” she grunts, dodging away from a metal slab thrown at her from the deteriorating Avengers Compound. 

She aims and lets a taser web shoot out, hoping Karen is more focused than she is at the moment.

_Focus, Pen, focus!_

Webbed up solidly, Penny turns her focus away from the bad guys and on Mantis; but the Guardian is busy helping the dude with the red tattoos, Drax she thinks but isn’t completely certain, out of another situation now. For a moment she doesn’t know what to do. Join, or to find somewhere else to go.

An explosion happens across the field, quaking the earth and rattling from her toes to top of her head, and Penny makes a split second decision.

She sprints. Better to be in the midst of battle than on the fringes, she chooses.

And maybe she’ll finally run into Mister Stark.

Her stomach spasms at the idea of finding her mentor.

She elbows some weird looking creatures out of the way and dodges a spear being thrown at her. When a second pointy object comes her way, Penny listens to her screaming sixth sense because she is fed up with the back to back attempts on her life, spins around and yanks it out of her would-be attacker’s hands, snaps it in half, before throwing both pieces away. Her attacker is furious, lashing out with another weapon that she doesn’t recognize, but Penny doesn’t let it bother her: she punches him in the throat when given the opportunity.

Another body hits the ground.

And she keeps on moving.

Colonel Rhodes finds her before she can find anyone she truly recognizes. He blasts away several Chitauri before spotting her and he yells out,

“Pen!”

The nickname throws her and she spins in a fast, tight circle in search of Mister Stark. Nobody else calls her by that name except him. _Where is he? Where is he?_ So when she isn’t met with red and gold armor, she panics.

“Hey, kid, over here,” that same voice calls out, something for her to zero in on during battle over the destructive cacophony, but she can’t place the voice’s location. She’s far away, lost and scared and alone. All alone. All alone and she’s dying and he’ll save her he _will—_

Gray armor lands before her and the War Machine helmet retracts.

“It’s wonderful to see you, Penny.”

Close to tears, she sighs in relief when the thud of the armor’s arrival jars her back to reality. She wants to say how confused she is and how absolutely not ready she is for this kind of attack… but that goes against everything she has fought for in the last two years, so she doesn’t say anything at all.

Well, except, “Have you seen Mister Stark?”

Colonel Rhodes’s smile is soft, a moment of something startling crossing his features that contradicts with the violence surrounding them, and tells her, “Not for several minutes. He’s around here, though. Why don’t you hook up—”

A blast knocks them away from each other before he can finish his suggestion.

Penny blinks particles from her eyes, as water leaks out from irritation, and her ears ring and ring and ring. When she stands, she wobbles. Tinnitus never fails to fuck her over; equilibrium falters first and then— _yep._ Her stomach knots. She might throw up. She may, honest to God, throw up on the battlefield.

Penny gulps air.

She jogs again, knowing that staying in one place during this calamity will be a mistake. She’s gotta keep moving, even if she hides away from the fighting long enough to reorient herself.

All she needs is a couple minutes.

When she crests a smoldering pile of dirt, she spots familiar armor. Definitely a new design than what he wore on Titan, though clearly it is nanotechnology; he can change his suit colors and Penny would still know his tech from anywhere; it’s Mister Stark.

She cries out in relief, forcing herself to close the distance between them.

“Mister Stark!”

A dark head jerks up and Penny watches as Iron Man pivots around until he spots her. His helmet retracts, her name on his lips.

She’s so close.

He doesn’t have much time to react. One second he sees her and the next he’s knocked down by an alien. Penny dives for her mentor and tosses out a web grenade all in the same exhale, reaching and covering him as the grenade goes off.

“What are you doing?” he is frantic, twisting out from under her, voice pitching in concern and _did it crack?_ “Are you alright? Pen, honey, answer me!”

She is moved onto her side, hands ghosting along her as they search for a wound they will not find.

Their eyes meet.

She’s speechless.

“Pen,” he whispers, reverent and dripping with emotion unlike she has heard directed at her. _Not like that…._

A palm cups her cheek.

Her heart constricts.

She stands up, helping him up once she has her balance, rambling at a hundred miles an hour because she’s confused and dazed and scared and nothing seems to be going right and he makes her comfortable so she just… let’s go.

“C’mere, honey,” he whispers right as he walks into her.

“Oh,” she breathes, cutting off her own chatter, sinking into his chest and wrapping her arms around his back. “This is nice. I needed one of these.”

He kisses her cheek.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long. An explosion goes off close to them, close enough to feel it in Penny’s toes but not close enough to knock them away from each other. Familiar repulsors whine in the air then fall quiet. Mister Stark pulls back, still holding onto her forearms, his eyebrows creasing.

“I need you to listen to me.”

She shakes her head because she knows that tone and she hates it. “No, wait!”

“Pen—”

“Mister Stark—”

“I need you to go with Pepper.”

“No, I wanna stay with you.”

“Penelope.” he pulls out her full name and she doesn’t want to let it bother her but her spine straightens and tears well in her eyes. “Don’t argue. Just do it.”

A hand touches her shoulder and she flinches, ready to spin around and fight, but Mister Stark shushes her.

“I need you two on the fringes helping Strange. Cap said there’s a bit of an issue. Can you both do that for me?” he asks, splitting his attention between her and the figure behind her.

Penny glances over her shoulder to see Miss Potts outfitted in a specially designed suit. Perhaps the Rescue suit, the one Mister Stark had only hinted at before now. Briefly she wonders how long it took for Miss Potts agree to wear it.

Miss Potts steps forward, guiding Penny away. “C’mon, hon.”

But Penny can’t look away from her mentor. Five years, Doctor Strange said, and Penny didn’t believe him. Yet one look into familiar brown eyes and she sees hardship. Gray streaks his hair. Has her mentor aged? No._ Impossible._

Miss Potts takes flight before Penny can say goodbye.

She squirms, wiggling about with as much strength as she dares until Pepper loses control of her. Penny free-falls, breathless. After another beat, Penny depresses a webshooter and web attaches to the blue armor, hanging behind her mentor’s fiancé like an airplane advertisement.

“Penny?” comes Pepper’s voice from her comms, no doubt set up thanks to FRIDAY. “Are you—”

“I’m fine,” she answers.

Pepper continues speaking. They fly overtop the smoldering building that she considers to be another home when something catches her eye. Penny stops listening, distracted by glinting gold.

A gauntlet.

Perfectly in tact gauntlet without an owner.

Her mind whirls. She hums into the comms so as not to alert Pepper of her plans. She doesn’t want to be stopped.

No, Thanos needs to be stopped. And if there is any way she can help, she has to do it. She’s fast; nimble and dexterous. If she aims her descent at the right time, she has a chance of getting away.

Penny lets go of the web.

She rolls as she lands.

She grabs the gauntlet. 

**Author's Note:**

> also like... today's my first irondad anniversary???????


End file.
